Maternal Influence
by FreakishlyGeekilyMe
Summary: 'In her mother she lost the only person able to cope with her' Mr Knightley(Emma chap 5) - but what if she hadn't? How will Emma behave with her very sensible - though bedridden - mother there to prevent (or at least undo!) the worst of her mistakes?
1. Prologue: part 1

_About 1797: Hartfield, England _

The earlier moans had died, and there was now nothing but the deafening silence as the gaunt figure lay, still and silent in her sickbed. Her husband slumped in a chair by her bedside – a picture of utter despair – as the doctor began to collect the bottles etc, which he had been so desperately using in a final attempt to save his patient.

Downstairs, a young girl sat dejectedly in an armchair as the evening sun washed over her weary face. She was gazing absentmindedly out the back window, lost in memories of a vibrant mother laughing in the gardens with her 'angel girl'. An unbidden tear rolled down her cheek as she thought of how the past few months of illness had now all but killed that joyful creature. Then, her thoughts wandered to the small toddler asleep in the nursery – now almost certain to grow up without a mother to cherish her, or even anything more than a few distant memories of a declining woman to prepare her in her future life. She could see in her mind's eye how her little sister would grow up with a terrible feeling of loss in her heart and how the strain isolation from their mother's strength would slowly crush the whole family. Overwhelmed by the bleak prospect this presented, her tears continued to flow.

Back in the sickroom, the husband slowly opened his eyes, as though hoping that when he did all the fear and pain of the last few months would turn out to have been nothing but a hideous dream. Seeing the doctor about to leave he pulled himself to his feet to thank him for "all that you have done for her and have tried to do" before sinking back into his chair and turning to face the failing woman. Alone with his wife he began to talk wildly into her ear, in a frenzied attempt to restore some life to the weary body. As a knock on the door pierced the murmurings and he cried out "enter", he glanced down at the unchanged face in despair.

Looking up as his eldest daughter nervously entered the room he was startled by the look of resignation in her face and the realisation that they were all waiting for only one outcome – the release from pain into the obliviousness of death. She came forward, hesitantly, and leaned over him to gaze into the wan face as though to imprint it forever in her mind.

As they watched, the figure in the bed sighed as if to show her utter exhaustion and complete willingness for the tortured soul to be released from the body. She then gave a small breath, and was silent.

Her daughter gave a little gulp as tears began to flood from her eyes, blurring her vision as her father bent over his wife and gently kissed the pale forehead as a last goodbye. Then, he began to usher his weeping daughter out of the room and back to her sister and their nurse, away from the chamber of illness and despair. Soon, having seen her safely to the comforting embrace of Nurse – and the distraction of her frolicsome younger sister – he returned, to judge whether or not it was time for the undertaker to be summoned.

Upon re-entering the room, he noticed that something appeared to mar the absolute silence of the room. He listened – there it was again. A small, shallow breath from the sick woman. A sign of life.

The miracle they had hoped for.


	2. Prologue: part 2

Even as he watched, the small breaths began to deepen as, by some blessed miracle, the woman managed to haul herself back from the brink of death. Tears rolled down his cheeks as she slowly opened her eyes and saw him watching her. With her breath catching in her throat, she smiled shakily at him. His voice cracking with emotion, he leant over her to murmur words of joy in her ear, before hurriedly summoning a servant to fetch his daughter and relieve her of her agony in waiting for news expected to be of a completely opposite nature.

Almost immediately afterwards, the padding of feet was heard and a small figure flew into the room, to fling herself down by the bed and again burst into tears. Unable to move much, the figure in the bed contented herself with rolling her head onto one side and giving her weeping daughter a slow and tranquil smile. However, as her daughter continued to cry, the mother carefully pushed herself up and gently enfolded her child in her loving embrace.

This happy state of affairs went on for some minutes before the daughter recollected the delicate health of her mother and removed herself in order to allow her to rest. She returned to her nurse, to joyfully play with her little sister and rejoice in the realisation that all her previous imaginings of a bleak future would not yet come to pass. The doctor returned and proclaimed that his patient would recover, the village delighted in the news and all of the nearby families came to express their relief and good wishes.

And yet, even as the invalid regained her strength and vivacity, it was soon realised that the fever which had only just spared her life had paralysed her legs. She was as light-hearted as before, could be carried down to sit in a chair or go for a drive in the carriage, managed the household nearly as well as ever, and would still devote herself to her daughters and their welfare – but the fact remained that she was still extremely dependant on others. Therefore, both parents decided that a governess should be engaged in order to relieve the mistress of the house of the need to both continue the education of her eldest child, and assume responsibility for the education of her youngest, an exceedingly precocious but high-spirited young damsel who would be a challenge for any instructor – let alone a mother who was easily exhausted and absolutely incapable of pursuing her if she – as she frequently did – found some more interesting alternative to lessons.

And so, Miss Taylor was engaged and the stage was set for a future of matchmaking, mistakes and misery on the part of Miss Emma Woodhouse – who would assume the government of the household after her sisters marriage and subsequently begin her transformation into the well-meaning (yet almost constantly wrong)semi- dictator whose story is already well known to us. The question is – at what point did the presence of her mother halt this metamorphosis? And, what did this do to the story?

_Now, I will just tell you now that the first chapter is nearly complete and will __**almost **__certainly go up in the next couple of days before the long wait for chapter two begins!_


	3. Chapter 1: Discussion

AS THIS IS THE PART WHERE I BEGIN TO 'BORROW' JANE AUSTEN'S PLOT, CHARACTERS ETC, I WILL ALSO MAKE THIS THE PART WHERE I REASSURE EVERYONE THAT I AM NOT HER; I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING ETC.

_About 17 years later:_

After returning from his trip to London and having had something to eat after the journey, Mr Knightley then began the walk to Hartfield, armed with messages and good wishes from one part of the family to another.

Arriving, he walked into the room in which Emma was in the process of setting up the backgammon board, while her father had moved from his chair to fret over his wife - who was apparently well enough to have been carried downstairs and placed in a seat by the fire where she was knitting away at the same time as listening to her husband's concerns for her welfare. However, upon Mr Knightley's entrance, Mr Woodhouse sat down in his chair and began his inquires after 'poor Isabella' and the rest of the John Knightleys. Satisfied that they were all in good health, he then began to reproach Mr Knightley for coming out so late – 'and in the damp and dirt too. I am afraid that you will have caught cold.'

'It is such a mild evening though and I am extremely fond of such a pleasant walk with such good company at the end of it – even if one of them will no longer be here anymore. And, speaking of which, how did the wedding go? Did you all behave perfectly well? Who cried most?'

'Well,' said Mrs Woodhouse, raising her voice over her husband's: 'poor Miss Taylor's', and settling her knitting on her lap, 'from what Emma so kindly told me afterwards, I believe that I may safely inform you that everyone was punctual and well behaved – with _some_ exceptions!'

'In that case,' began Mr Knightley, 'it only remains for me to console you all on the loss of Miss Taylor and to observe that independence, with only one to please, is better than dependence, with three, or rather two, as you Madam spend most of you time away from the main part of the household.'

'Particularly when one of those two is such a troublesome, fanciful creature Mr Knightley?' Emma wondered slyly.

'Yes, that is true,' said Mr Woodhouse mournfully,' I do think I must be very fanciful and troublesome sometimes.' However, as this comment was almost immediately followed by his daughter earnest assurances that she had merely been referring to herself, 'as a joke Papa, just a little joke between me and Mr Knightley', Mr Woodhouse became sufficiently appeased as to attempt to renew his concerns for Mr Knightleys health – but was soon cut off by his wife, who then began her own inquiries about her daughter and grandchildren.

However, the predominant topic of conversation soon became a light-hearted debate on the subject of Emma's matchmaking prowess. She was supported in her claims by her doting father, however was left to argue the merits of her case alone against Mr Knightley. Eventually, Mrs Woodhouse demanded a 'truce to the children's argument', saying gently to Emma :' I do wish darling, that you would accept Mr Knightley is correct in saying that** you **did not make this match, you saw two people who were fond of each other and you helped them to develop that relationship.'

With a respected voice of reason putting the matter in an appropriate perspective - while still acknowledging Emma's vital part in the matter – Emma was sufficiently appeased to drop the subject of the Weston's courtship and take up another topic of conversation. Sadly, the subject chosen soon became a discussion of her plan to ensure the future domestic happiness of Mr Elton by

"Finding someone for him to have as a mistress for the parsonage - it is a great shame that it should still be so empty now that he has had everything fitted out so nicely."

Mr Knightley's view of the matter was that "You should leave Mr Elton to find his own wife Emma and ...", stopping after receiving a stern glare from Mrs Woodhouse who knew that for him to continue telling Emma what she shouldn't do, would only end by strengthening her resolution to do it.

With this in mind, she resolved to wait until Emma's ideas began to become actions before beginning to try and dissuade her from a career in matchmaking.

* * *

_Firstly, I am sooo sorry that this has taken such a long time - considering I said it would probably just be a`couple of days`- but before you come after me in angry hordes (if only this was **that **popular) please allow the accused time to defend themselves. The thing is, I am the type of person who has what I think of as `selective illness` - basically I'm fine at work etc but as soon as I get home and plan on doing some writing headaches and other ailments come out in full flow. So again, really sorry for the broken promise, and I will try to churn out another chapter as soon as possible._

_PS: Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed/followed/favourited - you all encourage me so much!_


	4. Chapter 2: Harriet

An uneventful few weeks later, Mrs Woodhouse was informed by her daughter that at the dinner party that had been given the previous evening she (Emma) had made the acquaintance of a Miss Harriet Smith, who was a very pleasant and agreeable young lady. In subsequent weeks, Mrs Woodhouse was kept informed of the developing friendship between the two girls - wise enough not to make any objections or to voice her concerns until she had a good enough reason to justify the resentment that would be caused by what she was well aware her daughter would consider to be unnecessary meddling in her personal affairs. However, this resolution was shortly to be tried by an unavoidable confrontation.

* * *

Having failed in an appeal to Mrs Weston and her friendship with Emma, Mr Knightley then decided try another - this time to the maternal feelings of Mrs Woodhouse. She was in her customary position by the fire in the drawing room when he entered with the words "I urgently need to talk to you about something important - about Emma."

"What is it? Has something happened to her? Is she hurt?"

She was panicking, almost hysterical at the thought of anything unpleasant happening to her daughter, of having to watch her child's life destroyed as hers had been.

"No, no" he said hastily,"nothing like that. I'm just concerned about her new friendship with Harriet Smith - I don't think that it will do either of them any good." Sadly, a feeling of despair at the circumstances made the retort he received more than a little caustic.

"And pray why so Mr Knightley? _I _myself cannot see any particular harm in _my_ daughter's choice of a friend. From what I know, Harriet Smith is a good-tempered and sweet girl who Emma likes and enjoys the company of. I fail to see what is so objectionable about that - or even why _you_ see any need to tell _me_ what is good for _my _daughter." Irritation at her need for circumspection - even in the face of her daughter's errors - and the knowledge that if Mr Knightley said anything of that sort in Emma's hearing it would _guarantee _a deepening of the friendship, sharpened Mrs Woodhouse's tongue as she endeavoured to force her only ally into abandoning the subject.

A clipped speech about the dangerous effects of such unconscious flattery on Emma was instantly followed by a strong rebuttal about Emma being 'perfectly capable of judging circumstances for herself' and the following one about Emma doing harm to Harriet was met with such an indignant speech about Mrs Woodhouse being as good a mother as she could under her 'unfortunate circumstances' that Mr Knightley ungraciously submitted and with a snort of disgust at what he saw as maternal blindness stalked out as his antagonist sunk, exhausted, into the depths of her chair.

However, this unpleasant sacrifice soon bore fruit as Emma entered the room and saucily enquired "What have you done to poor dear Mr Knightley Mama - I saw him leave looking like someone had told him that all his beloved books had gone missing!"

"I am afraid we were talking about you Emma darling, and this new intimacy with Miss Smith."

"But why should that make him so annoyed Mama?" All traces of humour had left Emma's voice as a childlike innocence entered the questioning tone of her voice.

"Mr Knightley thinks that this friendship will only cause both of you harm and I will admit I am prepared to admit that there are merits to his point."

"Well,"Emma scoffed indignantly," I see no reason for Mr Knightley to pass any judgements on my friends but," the childlike tone resuming," would you tell me what you dislike about Harriet."

With this opportunity, Mrs Woodhouse carefully reminded Emma of Miss Smith's situation and how the intimacy she presently had with Emma would spoil her, making her discontent with her circumstances." No Mama, I would never..."

"It is not _consciously_ done Emma but you are doing something. Now I think that what you should be doing is continue being friendly towards Miss Smith but now do not try to control her and allow her to make her own choices about affairs of the heart." She hoped for an immediate assurance, but all Emma did was rise from her chair and walk out of the room.

* * *

_ I hope that you are all still enjoying this story and will continue reading - bearing in mind I have no plan, no plot and no self-discipline whatsoever (meaning I only update once in a blue moon). Just out of interest, could anyone who reviews please let me know what they think about Mrs Woodhouse - I'm not sure if she's taking over the story or not!_


	5. Chapter 3: Confusion

Having stalked out of the room and into the garden, Emma then busied herself in grumbling about the utter unreasonableness of her mother,"I have a perfect right to choose my own friends,_ and_ there is absolutely nothing wrong with Harriet." This, was then followed by a velment tirade about the utter impossibility of the ridiculous idea that _anything_ about their friendship with each other would do either of them any harm.

However, unbidden, an image of Harriet's eagerness at seeing Robert Martin and the distress in her face at Emma's disparaging remarks about him - she clearly cared deeply for him - in contrast to the civil attentions she gave to Mr Elton, forced Emma to the uncomfortable realization that: Harriet liked Robert Martin, he was well able to provide for her, Harriet was not greatly his superior (if at all) and he would make her happy.

Mortifingly, the subsequent realization was that Harriet had known this of her own accord and yet Emma had been endeavouring to persuade her otherwise and would almost certainly have succeeded. Mr Knightley's opinion that their friendship would only harm each other was correct. She had almost talked Harriet into love with a man she had never truly cared for just to pander to the 'matchmaking instinct' which was now revealed as only a subconscious excuse to meddle in the affairs of others.

Following such a humiliating discovery, the only thing Emma could think of was to slump down and burst into tears.

* * *

Meanwhile, Miss Harriet Smith had just received a particular letter from Robert Martin and was making her way to Hartfield, in order to gain the opinion of Miss Woodhouse on the matter.

Arriving, she was shown into the parlour and softly informed by Mrs Woodhouse that :"Emma had gone out into the gardens and would not wish to be disturbed, but that she should probably be back soon." In the interim, tea was brought and Mrs Woodhouse proved to be equal to her daughter as hostess, keeping her guest engaged with a flow of polite nothings. At length, Emma subduedly entered the room, to greet Harriet and endeavour join in the conversation until it became impossible for her to continue to ignore Harriet's obvious wish for a private discussion.

Therefore both young ladies made their excuses and left the room for a walk in the shrubbery. As soon as they were alone Harriet, bubbling with excitement, began to talk: " Miss Woodhouse, I have something extremely important to ask you. It is about a letter I received this morning, a letter containing a proposal of marriage."

Emma was shocked. For Mr Elton to propose to Harriet - who she could now see clearly was truly inferior both in mind and situation - was a disaster. Having dwelt with great energy on his merits, there was no argument she could make against the match, Harriet would accept him and be miserable forever. She had no thought of Robert Martin - what man would be brave enough to press his suit after weeks of little or no attention from the lady of his heart, even supposing that he had ever seen enough of Harriet's merits to entertain such ideas.

But a response was needed. Harriet was waiting for something, approval , a question, she knew not what. All she could think of was how to fix the damage that her arrogance and meddling had created. Yet Harriet was looking at her questioningly, she must respond, she must say something.

"Well Harriet," she began, "what is it that you need to ask me about your letter. I am sure you will be able to compose an answer for yourself."

"What should I say Miss Woodhouse, how should I answer?"

Emma was struck with a faint hope that if Harriet had really not made up her mind, she could be persuaded to refuse through subtle influence and tactfully worded arguments."My dear friend, have you not made up your mind as to the sense of your answer, you must surely have some inclination to decide in favour of or against, so tell me what you think."

"I find that I do not know what to think Miss Woodhouse, it is all so very unexpected. I really had no idea that he thought of me in that way."

"So you truly have no inclination for or against the gentleman in question Harriet, no definite opinion of your feelings towards him?"

With an impassioned negative following this question, Emma felt safe enough to proceed by saying: "Then Harriet, I think that if you are unsure of your feelings and future happiness it would be extremely unwise for you to accept this offer. After all, if you wish to accept another offer from him at a later date there will be nothing to stop you, but if you accept him now and later change your opinion, there will be nothing you can do."

"Yes, I see. But what must I say to him?"

"You must be careful to explain that you are unsure of your sentiments at present... no, say that you are flattered by his offer but that you find yourself unable to give him a favourable answer as you do not wish to be married in the near future. Oh, and put that you hope that you may still be permitted to consider him as a friend."

And so, the reply was written, sent and Emma hoped that for a man of Mr Elton's vanity - another thing she had only just realised - the mortification of rejection would be sufficient to prevent another offer to Harriet.

* * *

_Before you all come beating at my door for **still **allowing Emma to talk Harriet out of accepting Robert Martin even after she saw that it was the best thing for Harriet, I would like to remind you that she thinks it was Mr Elton proposing and she has also seen that he and Harriet would be a disaster. Also, I was going to have Harriet accept him now before I realise the potential for drama if she didn't - I will get them together much earlier than in the original though (promise)._

_PS: Kudos to anyone who spots the quote from the BBC miniseries (hint - proposal scene)_


End file.
